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Son’s DNA found inside mother’s brain

MOTHERS always have their children in the back of their minds – now it seems that this is quite literally true. Fetal DNA can enter a mother’s brain and remain there for decades, according to autopsy data.

Fetal DNA can also cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brains of pregnant mice. To see whether the same is true in women, Lee Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and her colleagues autopsied 59 female brains. They found the male Y chromosome in 63 per cent of them (PLoS One, doi.org/jfq).

Nelson says that pregnancy is the most likely explanation for the presence of male DNA, but having an organ transplant or an older brother, for example, could also be a factor.